The present invention relates to a drainage system for biliary drainage and more particularly relates to such a system which allows drained bile to be returned to the duodenum when needed.
The excretory apparatus of the liver includes the hepatic duct, the gallbladder, the cystic duct, and the common bile-duct which is formed by the junction of the hepatic and cystic ducts.
Bile is secreted by the cells of the liver into the common bile duct which drains into the duodenum. Between meals the duodenal orifice of the duct is closed and instead of flowing into the duodenum bile flows into the gallbladder where it is stored. When food enters the mouth, the duodenal orifice opens, and when the gastric contents enter the duodenum the gallbladder contracts so that the bile enters into the duodenum where it is used in the digestive process to help digest fats.
Certain patients need biliary drainage. This drainage is needed by some patients on a temporary basis and in other patients biliary drainage is needed permanently. Biliary drainage may be accomplished using either an external or an internal drainage system. Although internal systems have certain advantages their proper functioning is not easily verified. Further internal drainage systems sometimes allow bowel contents to be reflexed back into the biliary system with concommitant complications. Although bile is needed for proper food digestion, no existing drainage system, internal or external, allows bile to be available in the duodenum when needed to help in the digestion of fats.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a biliary drainage system whose functioning can be easily verified.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a system which prevents inadvertent reflux of bowel contents into the biliary system.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide such a system which allows bile to be available in the duodenum when needed for proper digestion.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide such a system which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and safe to use.